You want manual intervention before surge pricing gets activated, every time? Kind of defeats the purpose of having a computer respond to the supply-and-demand levels of every single place Uber operates. The whole point of that system is that it's designed to quickly respond to rapidly changing levels of drivers and passengers, and it doesn't do either party any good if a human has to review every single surge pricing moment before the surge pricing goes into effect. It's a ridiculous premise.

With regard to concerts and sporting events, why should Uber make rides free during those events? One would think Uber drivers would go to such areas at the conclusion of the event in hopes of picking up fares, so there would be less need for surge pricing, and if there were was need for surge pricing, that would still serve the purpose of getting more drivers on the roads.

Let's not forget a key point that everyone seems to ignore - NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO TAKE UBER. It's merely an extra choice, meaning you now have more choices for transportation than you did before. That's a good thing. If you take a handful of negative news stories about Uber (many of them unjustified attempts by press to create a story out of nothing, like in Australia), and decide you don't want to use Uber, that's fine; you can still take a taxi, or a bus, or a train, or your own car.

The original point was that North Korea attacked Sony, a corporation with more revenue than the entire country attacking it. The GP's ridiculous post posited that because NK attacked "Sony PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT", we should only count SPE's revenue when making such a comparison, as if the parent company didn't care that their subsidiary was attacked. You've taken that tangent to a silly level of off-topic.

So when Japan attacked Hawaii, they weren't attacking the United States? Reality, indeed.

I'm so tired of this bullshit example being trotted out as evidence of how evil Uber is. Here's the facts of what happened in Australia:

A bunch of people suddenly wanted Uber rides out of the area during the hostage situation. Uber's computers responded accordingly, and automatically, in activating the surge pricing. Whether you like the surge pricing or not, it's designed to get more drivers onto the road by providing the incentive of higher pay to meet the spiking demand. One would assume that at least some drivers are more likely to go out and pick up passengers when their phones alert them that they can suddenly make 4x the normal fare.

When human beings running Uber in Sydney became clued in as to what was happening, they made all rides in the area free.

Here's what DIDN'T happen: Uber in Sydney finds out about hostage crisis, says "omg let's charge 4x the normal fare because bunches of people are going to want rides and we can gouge them!"

You can disagree with Uber's business practices, or how they run their business, and that's fine, but when you just start making shit up, you lose all credibility and take away from an intelligent conversation on what to do about Uber. You're the problem.

If this orangutan was considered dangerous to people while it lives in a wildlife sanctuary, your ridiculous straw-man argument might have some merit.

If you'd like to place a bet on whether the US's retaliation will be limited to a strongly-worded letter, I'd very much like to take that action.

Actually, he made some very good points, and you responded with basically a sarcastic "fuck you and your smart talk!" Who's sliding past the issue?

You think North Korea is more internet-savvy than Barbara Streisand?

What a dopey comparison - when Target, Home Depot, and Chase were hit, they didn't CLOSE THEIR FUCKING STORES based on groundless threats from hackers half a world away. Sony did exactly that - they took a $42 million movie and decided to take a complete loss on it, at least for now. That's why it's big news.

As for Sony being based in Japan, what's that got to do with anything when you're talking about a multi-national corporation? What country do you think Sony makes the lion's share of its profits in? I'll give you a hint, it's the one that the most tickets were going to be sold for this movie, by far.

What??? They're facing retaliation now and they're still claiming they didn't do it. What kind of logic were you just using?

FTFY

Lawmakers were the ones mandating ABS, crumple zones, airbags, traction control, and seat belts. To a degree.

No, ask all the questions you want. Just realize, when you assure people that it "must" be a ruse to provide an excuse to attack North Korea, you sound as loony as the NK leadership.

I'm not saying NK definitely did plan a cyberattack against Sony; it's an open question at this point. But when you smugly assert that you know it's our own government, with your only proof being your own paranoid crazy logic, you're really not advancing the conversation any.

Depending on where you are, yes, broadband can get that high, because of "bundling." Cable companies in the US offer the "triple play" of internet, TV and phone in a bundle that costs you well over $100 for even the slowest internet connection they offer. Then when you ask "how much for just internet?" the price often turns out to be as high, or, inexplicably, even higher if you refuse the other two services. because, capitalism free markets MURICA.

I don't know the details anymore, because I'm lucky enough to live in an area serviced by Verizon FIOS, and haven't had cable internet in a while. For me, I get 6MB and I pay about $120/month for internet, cable and phone. Hoever, most people don't live in a area where they have a choice of more than one service, so I imagine that drives the price up for them.